Disclaimer: Everything belongs to J. K. Rowling
I saw that 11 people looked at the Prologue and then just 5 watched at the next chapter. I am really sorry that the Prologue is so boring, but I hope the 5 who saw the 1. chapter will continue! Thank you for that and here is the next chapter. I will not update so often just the first chapters. Have fun!
Chapter 2: The Praedators
I woke up with the sun shining in my face. The clock on my necklace said it was 5:30 in the morning. It was an old clock where you had to spin it to keep it working. I found it in our cellar. About every morning I spun it so it wouldn't stop. I dressed myself in running clothes and went out of the castle. Running was the best thing to get me awake and I could just turn off my thoughts during the exercise. The lake was beautiful in the mystic morning mist. The two laps around it got my breathing faster, but I could do some thinking. I didn't want to be the same girl like at home. With that thought in my head I went to the fetch my school robes and then down to the Great Hall to eat some breakfast. As I was halfway through it, the others came from the common room. I sat at the corner and looked to a group of people who made lots of noises and they all looked really happy. Most of them had all the same shade of red hair. Not like mine which looked almost like blood. No, it looked orange like carrots. And in the middle of them you could see an unruly black heap of hairs. This was the same person who barged in my compartment with one of the redheads and the blonde. I think their names were James, Fred and Louis. As I finished my breakfast, Professor Longbottom came and gave me my schedule.
"Everything okay, Ms Grey?" I nodded and gave him one of my rare smiles. I looked it over. Just Defence Against Dark Arts, Transfiguration and History of Magic. I made my way to DADA. Unlike my fellow first years who don't know where to go and get lost in the huge castle, I have a really good memory. Everything I've read, heard and saw I can remember. It's an ability which makes lots of things easier. Like, I overheard a conversation of my sisters' who talked about the castle and now I had a map over the school in my head. It's nothing near complete but I heard them saying something about a portrait which led exactly into the corridor where the classes would be. I sat down in the last row and watched how my classmates filled the seats before me. My row stayed empty and after five minutes our teacher entered the room. She was tall and thin, and with her blonde hair and brown warm eyes she looked really nice. But by how she looked over her glasses at us I knew you shouldn't get on her bad side.
"Good morning, class. I am Professor Venton. I will teach you how to defend yourself against the Dark Arts but this year we will just do easy and non-harmful spells. I hope..." She couldn't finish her sentence because in this moment three boys stormed in.
"Sorry Professor, the stairs just changed their course and we had to run like five floors down." It was James who spoke. Against my will I smiled. The three boys looked absolutely dishevelled. Louis and Fred tried to catch their breath while trying to stifle their laughter. I knew they didn't just miss a stair. No, they'd done something.
"It's okay, just sit down. But if that will be repeated I'll have to give you detention!" They looked absolutely innocent, but I saw that Louis tried not to hobble his foot while Fred didn't look into the eyes of the professor. Instead he looked just a few centimetres away. And James didn't want to tousle his hair. They nodded in unison and sat down at my row. Fred sat down beside me, followed by Louis and then James.
The whole lesson the three of them planned some prank, I was sure. I didn't even have to listen to Professor Venton because she talked about the book we would read this year and I'd already read it. So I listened to the boys instead.
"We have to do it at lunch because then everybody will see it." Fred nodded to his idea, but Louis looked a little taken back.
"We haven't been here for two days yet, and you want to play a prank already?"
"Sure thing, Louis! We have to make sure that every student and teacher know that we arrived! This is our starting prank. We could make a tradition out of it. In the first week of September we will do pranks every day, except for the first!" Fred was really happy with the idea of a prank week. I thought it would be great to have something to laugh about.
"That's great, Fred! That's perfect!" James was bouncing in his seat.
"Do we even have everything for the prank? How should we even get into Filches office? I bet it's protected against magic!" Both James and Fred looked sad.
"I didn't even think about that. I mean, my dad knows how to pick a lock the Muggle way, but he never taught us how." Fred whined now and looked really sad.
"What are you talking about? This is a lesson and I do not wish to have troublemakers in my class. If you don't want to be here, there is the door, you can go." Our teacher looked really angry now.
"But we were talking about the lesson, Professor!" Fred tried to convince her.
"Aha, so what were we talking about?" Fred looked really pained now, just like Louis and James. I had mercy with them and slid Fred a parchment with the answer. He gave it Louis who looked briefly at it.
"We talked about how important it is to do the right wand motion, because when you do it wrong, it could mean your death in a life or death situation." Louis piped out. Professor looked taken aback.
"Oh, okay. But I don't want you to talk in here. If you have questions just ask me." And with that she turned back to the blackboard to write something down.
"Thanks! You saved our asses!" Fred grinned at me. I tried to smile but failed miserably.
"No problem, guys. Compartment-buddies have to keep together." As a look of realisation crossed the boys' faces I couldn't hold back a scowl. I mean, I am used to not get noticed, but it's hard that not even in school I was being seen.
"You were there. You were just so quiet we kind of forgot you." I raised an eyebrow at James.
"That's really nice to say." He blushed and tried to explain it to me. Thanks to Louis he didn't have to.
"But I don't understand how we could. I mean this hair is really unique." I just nodded and looked back to the blackboard were Professor Venton was writing our homework down.
"If you need help with the lock, I could break it. I know how to do it." I didn't look at them. Why did I just say that? I mean do I really want to help them? People who forgot who I was? But I said it and I couldn't take it back. As if they want help from a shy little girl.
"That would be perfect!" They weren't even angry that I'd overheard their conversation.
"We have to do it now. We have History but my dad told me that our professor is a ghost. He won't notice if we are not there." I looked back at them. Skipping a class on my first day of classes? This was not the person I wanted to be. I wanted to be the child parents were proud of. But they didn't notice me when I was nice, so why not? And just this morning during the rounds I swore myself that I didn't want to be the person at home.
"Sure." I shook their hands and after the class was dismissed we made our way to the first floor. I kind of lead them because twice they wanted to go on the wrong stairs and once they tried to go through a wall which James claimed would be a secret passageway. Needless to say, he and Fred ran against said wall and Louis and I laughed our heads of. As we finally made our way to the office, I saw a list with forbidden things on it. In just two seconds I knew what it said.
The boys looked expectantly at me and I fished a hairpin out of my mass of hair. I turned it so that it would be perfect to pick the lock. After one minute I got it and we sneaked into the office. It was stuffy and everywhere where parchments with crimes from before us. I didn't even know what they were searching for, but as Louis made a little victory dance I knew they found whatever it was. He pushed me out of the door and we crept up to the History of Magic classroom. But before I could enter, Louis grabbed my arm and held me back.
"Do you want to help us playing the prank?" He looked quite hopeful.
"If you want..." My voice wasn't louder than a whisper, but they managed to understand what I said.
"Of course we do! You broke into the office of our ancient caretaker!" Louis laughed as Fred grabbed my arms and shook me.
"We need you!" I broke out of his grasp and looked at them. They all looked expectantly back.
"Ok, what do we do?" All of them broke into a grin. We can discuss it in History, we have like forty minutes left." We slipped into the classroom. Like Fred had said, our Professor just stood there and droned on about some ancient wars. We sat down at the last row and Fred showed me a parchment.
The Beginning Prank
What we need: Fireworks from Filch, the changing colour from Uncle George, a charm which makes food disappear and appear somewhere else.
1. Break into Filch's office
2. Convince the House Elves to let us put changing colour in the food
3. Find the charm
4. Set the Firework on fire at lunch
5. Charm the food to disappear from the plates and everything that they put on them will appear from the ceiling
I furrowed. That was a good plan. I looked up to the boys. They all looked so proud. I sighed.
"I could find a charm if you want me to."
James grinned. "That's perfect. Do you know how we could convince them?"
"Maybe, but I have to go now. It will take a while to find the right charm. You'll cover me up in Transfiguration, ok?" Fred nodded enthusiastically but Louis didn't look too happy.
"What should we say?"
"You are the pranksters. Something will come to your mind. You could give me the colour too. If I am out of class I can do this one too." As James handed me the colour I slipped out of class again. After a short walk to the library I was in the charms section. I found a few books where the charm could be in and brought them to a table. I looked them through and after half an hour I found the charm I would need: Exis Appareat Cibum. With that I put them back where I found them and ran to the kitchen. Danielle and Ellen, the troublemakers in the family, had talked about the portrait with fruits where you have to tickle the pear. The entrance was near the Hufflepuff common room. As I tickled the pear it laughed silently and turned into a door knob. I opened the door. In the middle of the kitchen I saw the four house tables and the teacher table in front of it. In the back of the kitchen where the most house elves were I could see steam coming from huge cooking pots. But before I could go to them, five house elves came to me.
"What can we do for you, Miss?" The smallest one with big grey eyes asked. I smiled at them.
"You know my friends and I thought it would be funny if we made a beginning prank. You know, to loosen up a little. And I have powder here. It will turn all of us a different colour. It isn't dangerous or anything. If you want I can show you." They looked a little surprised.
"I don't know if that is a good idea, Miss." The same one said. Okay, that didn't work.
"Don't you hate it to be treated like servants? Don't you want to get a little revenge? It's in no way harmful to the students. We will all have a laugh and then after a while we will all turn back to normal." It wasn't the whole truth. The colour would stick for a whole day, but they didn't have to know that, right?
"Gringe can show the food, Miss."
I grinned. "Thanks Gringe!" When I came out of the kitchen I had completed both of my tasks. I looked at my clock. Transfiguration would start in five Minutes. I could still be there in time. I ran up the stairs and slipped into the room as the bell rang. All of the seats were occupied. But then I saw James waving in the back. I walked to them. They had saved me a seat. I sat down between James and Fred.
"Did you get it?" Fred asked excitedly. I nodded. They all cheered.
"Shush. In my class I don't want cheering. Is that clear?" We all looked up in shock. Our teacher had arrived. He was short and fat. His blue eyes were watery and the few hairs left were an ugly shade of brown. All in all, I could say I didn't like him a bit.
"I am Professor Lindan. This will be your first year of working and learning. If you don't want to play after my rules you can go. Now, did you all read the book I assigned for you?" My fellow Gryffindors were not very happy with him as our teacher.
"What is the charm for the food?" I jumped two meters in the air. I hate it to be so frightened.
"Yes Miss..." Professor Lindan thought I wanted to answer his question.
"Grey, but I don't want to answer you, Sir. I have a question myself." He looked angrily at me.
"First I want to hear my answer. Then you can ask yours." I nodded. As he asked one of the Ravenclaws we had class with I turned my head slightly to James.
"Yeah, I found it. And I persuaded the house elves. But don't you dare startle me like that again!" I hissed at him. Fred laughed silently. After hearing a small 'I'm sorry' I calmed down. The lesson was just boring. We talked about the books and how Lindan saved a village as he transformed lava into snow. When, finally, the bell rang I packed my stuff.
"I want a one foot parchment, why you should always be sure you can do it before you try it." This was just ridiculous. We made our way to the Great Hall. Fred fidgeted at the one side of me and James tousled his hair every half minute on my other side. Finally I grabbed the hands of both of them and held them down.
"Stop it! This is just a small prank. It's not like you never did it before. Right?"
"Well, this is our first prank without our Uncle George."
I sighed. This could be a total disaster. "Just let me do the charm with the food and you start the firework." They nodded and we parted at the entrance. The boys made their way to the back of the hall while I went to the middle of the hall. As I walked I drew my wand. I pointed it on the table besides me and muttered Exis Appareat Cibum. The food glowed shortly and I made my way to the end of the Gryffindor table. But before I could made it there I was pulled down on Fred's lap.
"Really now, Fred? Couldn't you just have said: Hey George, come sit down here? Do you really had to do that?" He laughed and released his hold on my wrist. I pushed myself in between him and a girl (who wasn't really happy about it) while Louis and James sat across from us. "When will the fireworks start?"
Fred wanted to answer but in this moment the rockets started to light themselves and flew through the air. A few laughed and I saw even Professor Venton smile. As the fireworks died out, Professor McGonagall stood up. But before she could say a thing she turned purple. Now everyone laughed. It was just a comical sight. The strict Headmistress, purple! Then there was a scream, the students just saw that all of them had turned into an interesting colour. There was mint green, bright orange, silver, gold, red, brown, blue. Every colour you could imagine.
"Who did this?" McGonagall's voice rang through the hall. Everyone went silent.
"I want to know who this was!" We didn't dare to look at us. I just stared shocked at our Professor.
"If I find out who this was...!" She didn't have to end the sentence. We all knew it wouldn't be pleasant. As the students calmed down. They tried to eat the food on their plates. But as they touched it with their forks food disappeared. Students were confused and then started filling the plates again. But now the food disappeared immediately. I filled innocently my plate with food and played shocked when it was gone. After just one minute the hall was once again loud and filled with shouts. Then one of the students saw the dark cloud appear in the middle of the hall.
"What is that?"
"Why is it so dark?"
"What happened?" Questions were asked but no one knew the answer except for us. I looked questioningly at Louis.
"Do you know what that is?" I never knew I was such a good actor. But before he could answer, the cloud exploded. Everyone was splattered with the food they filled on their plates before. Now hell broke loose. A few students screamed but most of them just laughed. We four couldn't hold it anymore and laughed with the others. McGonagall tried to get our attention but now a food fight had started. Nobody was clean after we all had to clean the Great Hall and trudged to our respective common room. All of them just talked about our prank. The most of them found it hilarious but a few were just grumpy and said this was a bad thing to do. The teacher couldn't find out who did this prank but said if they found out they would get detention. Nobody suspected that it would be a first or second year. As we came into the room we walked to a corner. James and I sat down on a couch while Louis and Fred both got a chair. The first time since we were in the Great Hall we looked at each other. We broke down in laughter. I leaned on James and Fred fell down the chair. After what felt like an hour (it was just 15 minutes) we could finally stop.
"This was so cool! We have to do it again!" I nodded in agreement. I'd never felt so carefree. It was perfect.
"If anybody could listen." We looked up. Professor Longbottom stood in the entrance.
"As a result to the prank this lunch, the teachers agreed on free afternoon and you're all going to eat in here." We all looked at him in shock. Had they just grounded us?
"Does that mean we are like... grounded?" A student from the back shouted.
"Yes, that is what we agreed." That isn't too bad, is it? I looked at my partners in mischief.
"I don't think this is too bad. I mean we all could get extra homework or something." James just spooked my thoughts out aloud. All of us nodded in unison.
"Then I will wish you all a good night."
"Night, Neville!" Longbottom turned to Fred and sighed.
"Good night, Frederick." Louis, James and I all laughed at the face from Fred. He just scowled at us.
"I think we should plan our next prank for tomorrow!" Louis sighed.
"Really guys, wasn't that enough?" Fred shook his head.
"We agreed on a WEEK of pranks. Not just the second day!" James nodded.
"I never even agreed to this!" I got up. "Then I will let you plan. It was fun to work with you guys. We will see each other tomorrow." As I went up to go, James pulled me down on his lap. I mean, really? Is today 'Hey, why don't we all pull George on our laps!'-day? Brilliant.
"I think something is wrong with you. Do you think you can just shove me around like you want?"
James looked genuinely sorry. I pushed myself in my old spot and looked at him.
"What do you even want?"
He shook his head as if to clear his mind. "I wanted to say that you can't just go. You are our fourth member in the Prankster group." He said it so proudly, as if it would be an honour to be part of this group, which had a really stupid name.
"Prankster group? Really now? What is that for a name? Did you come up with the name when you were seven?" They looked sheepishly at me.
"Seriously? You invented it at the age of seven?" I laughed.
"Hey! My parents loved this name."
"They probably found it very cute!" It was so easy to tease them.
"Do you have a better name?" I thought about it.
"Wasn't your grandfather a marauder?"
"Yes, but we don't call us like them. That would just be too childish." I raised an eyebrow.
"More childish than Prankster Group." James hastily added.
"And why don't we just translate it to Latin? Then you would be the Praedators." They looked at my head as if there was growing a second one.
"If you don't like it you do-..."
"We love it!"
"It's perfect!"
"We are the Praedators!" They all talked at once. I chuckled.
"But you are a member of the Praedators! You invented us!"
I thought about it. It couldn't be too bad. I mean I would have friends.
"Sure thing, so to the plan for tomorrow."